


Try Again

by nymja



Series: Do or Do Not [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Tumblr fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 21:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5470631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymja/pseuds/nymja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His eyes bounce between her, the lightsaber, and the fire before them. And she knows he must have questions of his own—countless amounts of them. But he only asks her one.</p><p>“What’s your name?”</p><p>--</p><p>Luke Skywalker and the student who found him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Try Again

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 한국어 available: [다시 해보다](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9941039) by [laika_uebersetzt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laika_uebersetzt/pseuds/laika_uebersetzt)



> For the prompt: Luke trains Rey to be a Jedi. Can be read separate from Keep Trying!

He looks at the lightsaber in her hand. She stands there, trying to keep calm. Knowing that this is where she needs to be, but being afraid of being sent away from it.

His focus moves to her face. And she thinks of Maz Kanata in that moment.  _You see the same eyes in people…_

He visibly swallows. And when he speaks, it’s with an uncertainty that implies he hasn’t attempted the action in a long, long time.

“…You must be hungry.”

Her hand shakes slightly, before she brings it down to her side.

“A little.”

He nods. “Come on.”

She follows him.

–

“You have questions,” he says in between eating spoons of soup.

“I do.”

“I’ll try to answer them.” His eyes bounce between her, the lightsaber, and the fire before them. And she knows he must have questions of his own—countless amounts of them. But he only asks her one.

“What’s your name?”

“Rey.”

“Hello, Rey.”

She tries to quell the nerves cresting like waves in her stomach. “Hello, Luke.”

His lip twitches. It’s almost a grin. He almost looks younger. “It’s nice to meet you.”

–

They talk. His voice starts rasping within ten minutes, but they talk until they run out of things to say.

When she tells him about Han, his body slumps. The metallic fingers of his hand catch the light of the fire as he rests them on his forehead.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

She didn’t know Han, not like this man knew him. But she doesn’t think Luke is talking only to her in that moment. Rey’s eyes still well with tears.

She bites down on her lip. And she speaks before she can think. “It’s not your fault.”

He stares at her, his own eyes red. “It is.”

He turns to the fire. And neither of them speak until he offers her a bedroll.

–

She wakes up the next morning to see him already awake. His back is to her, his focus on the waves crashing against the rocks below. “Are you here to bring me back?”

Rey pushes herself up, frantically blinking away sleep. “I don’t know.”

He nods. “…where did you get that lightsaber?”

She looks down at her hip. It’s still there. She feels like it shouldn’t be. “Maz Kanata.”

“And the map?”

“An astromech.”

“Blue?”

“Yes.”

He still doesn’t face her. “R2.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Artoo. My droid.” Luke turns a little, “My friend.”

“Don’t you miss them?” Rey finds an edge crawling into her voice. “Your family? Don’t you—why would you-?”

“All the time.”

“Then why are you  _here_?”

She watches as his robed back heaves with a long, drawn-in breath. It takes a few second before he responds.

“I think…I was waiting.”

“What for?”

He turns his head to look over his shoulder. She doesn’t think he’s slept much, if at all.

“You.”

–

He makes them breakfast.

“Do you have any family?”

“No.”

“Friends?”

She starts to say no once again, but pauses. “Yes.”

Luke nods. He shovels more food into her bowl, and gestures with his hand. “Eat.”

She eats. It’s…bland.

“Sorry,” he offers. His hood is over his head, casting a further shadowed look to his features. “Never was much of a cook.”

“S’alright.” She swallows down another bite. “Jakku doesn’t have much for flavor.”

He blinks. “Jakku?”

“You know it?”

A strange expression crosses his face, but it’s gone quickly. He tilts his head. “Once.” And there it is again—that almost grin. “Lots of sand.”

She scoffs. “Yeah.”

“Never liked sand.”

She looks at him. There’s a splotch of gruel on his robe that must’ve missed the spoon. His eyes have circles underneath them. She does not know what to make of this man. But she feels…calm. Around him. Less alone.

“Me either.”

–

After breakfast, he takes her to the ruins.

They’re beautiful.   
And sad.

She trails her fingers over the old, grey stone. The worn etchings are smooth under her touch, nearly gone. She doesn’t know what they say—Jakku taught her enough language to get by, but she wasn’t a scholar. Not by a long shot.

Something about this place pulls at her. She walks along the dilapidated walls, the crumbling archways. In her mind, she tries to picture this place like it used to be—polished and clean, full of life. Full of the Force.

What’s here, what’s under her hand, feels like an echo. A wound. Something scabbed over. But maybe there’s something new growing underneath.

She follows the stone until she feels like it’s time to stop. She looks at the wall, not sure what she’s seeing carved into it.

“It’s a code,” Luke says. He’s standing away from her, across what once must have been a larger room but is now a felled clearing. Moss grows over what Rey thinks may have been a workbench. Or altar.

She traces the sigils with her fingertips. For some reason, a wave of indescribable loss hits her and her eyes water. “What happened here?” She whispers.

Behind her, Luke looks up at the sky.

“What happens everywhere.”

–

They make it back to his camp by nightfall. He starts another fire—with a stone and some dried grass. She’s never seen it done that way before.

“I need a teacher,” she declares. Briefly, her mind travels back to Kylo Ren. The offer he made, right after he had nearly killed Finn. Her stomach turns.

“You do.” Luke admits.

“Will you help me?”

The words are heavy in the air. The weight on her hip pulls with it.  _The Light—it’s always been there. It will guide you._

Luke looks at her, his face twisted in an emotion she can’t describe. He’s a mirror to the first time they met. Old and tired and lost.

“…I’ll try.”

–

The first thing they do is eat dinner.

Then, they sit.

“You’ve felt loss.” Luke states.

She knows it’s not a question, but she feels the need to nod.

“And anger.”

“Yes.”

“And loneliness.”

Her eyes dart away.

“But hope, most of all.”

She looks at the ground. “Is that…alright?”

“Hope…” She feels something jolt through her, and she turns her attention back to Luke. He sits, but for the first time there’s a smile on his face. It’s small, and sad, but there. “Is always a good thing.”

–

Her days become a pattern. She wakes up at dawn. They eat Luke’s strange porridge. She runs. She lifts. She does handstands for reasons she doesn’t understand. At night, they meet back at the ruins, where they meditate. Before he makes her dinner, Luke talks to her about the etchings, about what he thinks they mean. About what they might have been, once.

She listens. She learns.

The lightsaber goes untouched. She notices that Luke seems to be missing one.

–

“I’m from Tatooine.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“There’s not much to say.”

–

She feels him calling to her, around mid-day. She’s in the middle of her run, and her feet slow in their step.

She follows the call. He’s sitting around the dusty pit of the campfire.

“Call it to you,” he mutters.

Rey sends him an uncertain look. But she knows what he means.

Effortlessly, she reaches out her hand. The hilt nestles into it. Cold, and a little too heavy. But somehow a perfect fit for her grip.

Luke watches her. His gaze is distant and sad. “That was my father’s.”

Rey clears her throat. “I know.”

He gestures. “Go ahead.”

She thumbs on the ignition. The blue light seems to break up the greys and greens of the island. It casts a pale sheen on Luke’s face.

“You’ve already used it.”

She nods. “Against Ren.”

Luke closes his eyes.

Rey, not knowing what else to do, switches it off. The island seems instantly silent without its now familiar hum.

“It’s time to try again.”

“Try what?”

Luke picks at the ground from where he sits. He places a few rocks into his palm.

“By the end of the day, I want you to stack these.”

Rey looks at the rocks. Then at his face. His expression is shut off, but she feels more than sees that one, stubborn emotion emanating from him in waves.

Hope.

She sits. Takes a breath.

“Alright.”

–

It takes her hours, but she gets the rocks to line up before she falls asleep. When she wakes up the next morning, there’s a blanket over her. Luke is once again staring out at the ocean.

“I have something to show you.”

–

She follows him back to the ruins. He walks until he stands right before the place she stopped. His fingers trail the etchings, and he closes his eyes. After a moment, he digs his fingers into the etchings, and twists.

It’s a compartment. And it opens to reveal a small pile of brightly colored stones.

“This is only a start,” he warns. His fingers pick one up, and he hands it to her. “The rest you’ll have to do on your own.”

Rey stares at the small rock in her hand.

Not a stone, she realizes with sudden clarity.

A crystal.

–

She starts by taking his apart. It’s something she knows how to do. She undoes the casing. Removes the power cell. Rewires the modulation circuits, replicates the energy gates. She finds another lens. All the parts are made by scavenging what’s left of Luke’s fighter. Then she does something new. Instead of tearing down, she builds. It takes days.

Once she’s done, she puts Luke’s saber back together for him.

He looks at it for a moment, before he finally, slowly, clips it to his belt.

–

It’s another month before he asks her.

“Are you ready?”

Rey stands.

Her thumb hits the switch.

He smiles, before he ignites his own.

“Then let’s start.”


End file.
